{"id":30081,"date":"2023-12-20T20:58:45","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T03:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/couple-flourishing-with-rv-living-and-working-on-the-road\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:11:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:11:02","slug":"couple-flourishing-with-rv-living-and-working-on-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/couple-flourishing-with-rv-living-and-working-on-the-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Couple flourishing with RV living and working on the road"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy campers teach music and share on social media<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Jared
Jared and Kayla Payne, happy campers playing music and loving nature. (Courtesy Jared and Kayla Payne)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jared and Kayla Payne, who chose traveling and RV living eight months ago, are back in Farmington for the Christmas holiday, with a new story to tell.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live full time on the road, and we share about our travels and tips and tricks, fun and laughs and music on a couple of different social channels on YouTube <\/a>and Instagram, and it’s a lot of fun,\u201d Jared said Monday in a phone call with the Tri-City Record<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jared Payne said they\u2019re part of an online music teaching team, a business started by a friend a few years ago. Jared teaches piano and Kayla teaches piano, guitar and flute. Teaching is their primary source of income, but musical performances and social media work contribute to their earnings.<\/p>\n

\"Jared
Jared Payne teaches piano remotely using Piano by Pictures platform. (Courtesy Jared and Kayla Payne)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jared Payne, 26, grew up in Farmington as a music lover and indoors person, while Kayla was raised in Idaho Falls, Idaho, in a family of outdoors enthusiasts. He now loves the outdoors, hiking and backpacking.<\/p>\n

After considering the money they spent on apartment rent, they bought a 28-foot RV, which needed a lot of work. Now they tow their portable home behind a Toyota Sequoia to public lands.<\/p>\n

A favorite destination is the Olympic peninsula of Washington, where it was \u201cjust beautiful.\u201d They camped on a river a month for $5 dollars a night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had never been there, so it was cool to see the rainforest. It’s amazing,\u201d Jared said, adding that it\u2019s phenomenal how \u201cmuch scenery the U.S. has that we take for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

One minute we\u2019re in the rainforest, another we\u2019re in the desert and then we\u2019re in the mountains \u2013 like we just have it all here.\u201d And another we\u2019re in the desert,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Jared
Jared and Kayla Payne\u2019s rig takes them to remote sites like Superstition Mountain in the background. (Courtesy Jared and Kayla Payne)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During their eight-month journey, the young couple have met many interesting people, such as Bill Blackwell, the treasure hunter they camped next to in the Superstition Mountains in Arizona. Blackwell, a retired entertainment lawyer who lives in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, has made many trips to the area in search of Spanish treasure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve met some great people, whether that’s just you know, being near people and talking with them \u2013 like Bill \u2013 or we’ve met some really awesome friends on social media. Just other people that follow us or interact with us,\u201d said Jared.<\/p>\n

Bill\u2019s a great guy \u2026 we camped right next to him and started chatting with him. He’s a fun character. He gave us a whole spiel on gold hunting. It was a lot of fun.\u201d Jared said.<\/p>\n

Jared said they\u2019ve met other young people who are living on the road and working remotely, including those who work corporate jobs from \u201ctheir rig.\u201d He said they didn\u2019t realize how popular it was to work remotely, even with families and those partially retired.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it’s been very chill with other young people like us that are doing the same thing,\u201d Jared said.<\/p>\n

The couple met while both were majoring in music at Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg. They earned their master\u2019s degrees in music at Arizona State University and have many friends in the Tempe area, where they\u2019re heading after Christmas.<\/p>\n

The recreational vehicle makeover<\/div>\n

Jared said he\u2019s always been interested in learning new things so learning about how an RV works was intriguing. He said they \u201cgutted\u201d the entire 2011 RV with the help of Kayla\u2019s grandfather Gregory Sievers, who had the electrical knowledge and the tools necessary for renovation.<\/p>\n

They redid the layout, with new floors, cabinets, lighting, water heater and couch, picking up knowledge by watching YouTube.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Payne\u2019s RV interior got a complete refurbishing. (Courtesy Jared and Kayla Payne)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt was a big face-lift.\u201d Jared said.<\/p>\n

He said that about a month ago they added solar panels with an inverter and lithium batteries. Solar provides most of their electrical needs with four panels producing 440 watts each. They use propane for heating and cooking.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we can stay off-grid for months on end if we have to,\u201d Jared said.<\/p>\n

Kayla loves living on the road<\/div>\n

\u201cI love living on the road \u2026 growing up my family was very outdoorsy and adventurous,\u201d said Kayla, 24. Her parents were into hiking and camping and she \u201cjust tagged along.\u201d<\/p>\n

While growing up in Idaho Falls, she participated in lacrosse, softball and gymnastics. Snowboarding was a favorite family sport, and they participated in hunting and fishing. Now, hiking and backpacking are her choice activities.<\/p>\n

Kayla teaches on the Piano by Pictures <\/a>platform. \u201cThe whole idea of this company is to teach people how to play piano without actually having to read sheet music,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cIt\u2019s
\u201cIt\u2019s not just about making the money,\u201d Kayla Payne says. The RV lifestyle is about enjoying life. (Courtesy Jared and Kayla Payne)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She also works with graphic design and makes all the picture notation used by the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cContent would be extremely difficult if we didn’t know how to do that stuff,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said they were inspired to choose the traveling lifestyle when they took a little vacation and saw people living in RVs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we were like \u2013 we should totally do that \u2013 it would be cheaper and we both love to travel and hike \u2026 It makes perfect sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jared said that their choice to hit the road is \u201csomething that we never really envisioned doing. But then once we actually thought about it, and started researching it, we realized that it’s actually possible and it’s great way to live.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jared
Jared & Kayla Payne are set up to live off-grid for months. (Courtesy Jared and Kayla Payne)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe just stay off-grid as much as we can so our monthly stay \u2026 some months it’s $200 or $400. I mean, we try to we try to do it on the cheap.\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, so we’re very happy with where we’re at \u2026 of course, there’s always room to improve and make even more money,\u201d Kayla said. \u201cBut, for me it\u2019s not just about making the money \u2026 it\u2019s also, can I enjoy life and can I go on the hike \u2026 and still make enough money to be comfortable and eat the food I want,\u201d Kayla said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a happy camper,\u201d chuckled Kayla.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy campers teach music and share on social media Jared and Kayla Payne, happy campers playing music and loving nature. (Courtesy Jared and Kayla Payne)cca Jared and Kayla Payne, who chose traveling and RV living eight months ago, are back in Farmington for the Christmas holiday, with a new story to tell. \u201cWe live full […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80959,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30081\/revisions\/80959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30081"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}